Thanksgiving 2013 and Black "Friday"

Megan and I had our own Thanksgiving dinner with Ozzie at the table, and then invited family over for dessert. Megan is an excellent cook, and she made dinner. Turkey, dressing (not stuffing because we didn't stuff it into the bird), mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, and dinner rolls. She made it all while I played with Ozzie, or stood in the kitchen and cracked wise. She's incredible.

Then family started to arrive around 6:00. Megan also made an apple crisp and pecan pie with a twist, and everyone who came brought a dessert. I only had one plate at dinner to save room for all of the confections. I ended up having 4 pieces of various chocolate pie. Dessert was a success, and it was great to  see family on Thanksgiving.

Nerd dad is almost ashamed to admit that he doesn't have an iPad. Megan has one that I've toyed with a little, but a tablet is the device/gadget that I have been lacking. I have had my eye on them for over a year. I've read all of the reviews for the tablets that are out there. My iPad decision came down to the fact that I have an iMac that I love, Apple products last, and are well worth the extra money that you pay for them.

Target's Black Friday deal on iPads is buy a new iPad Air and get a $100 GiftCard. Buy a Mini and get a $75 GiftCard. I haven't seen a deal that sweet in my year of watching the market, so I knew I should capitalize on it. Target opened at 8:00 tonight. The last of the dessert crew left around 8:30. I thought I'd go down to Target just to see if they might have one left. I didn't expect them to have one, but Target is pretty close to my house, so I didn't have anything to lose.

There is a PetCo next to my Target, and I pulled into their parking lot. The PetCo parking lot was almost full, and I knew that PetCo wasn't open today. This was overflow Target parking. I grabbed the first spot I saw in the PetCo lot and trekked to Target. I passed people who were locking up the guard rails that were set up outside the store before open.

I walked into Target and saw more people inside than I've ever seen in the store before. A lot of them had big TV's in their carts. People had carts (plural) of toys they were pushing to the front. There were Target team members every 10 feet or so directing traffic. The electronics section is all the way in the back of the store, so I bobbed and weaved my way back there. There were even more people in that section of the store. They were milling about looking at CD's, DVD's, and video games. I made a bee-line for the register where I thought I could ask a clerk to unlock an iPad for me if they had any left.

At the register was a guy standing with a big cage on wheels full of iPads. I went up to him, and then noticed the long line of people that were stepping up to him one-by-one. I found the back of the line, and there were about 50 people in front of me. I texted Megan that I probably won't get one, but I'm going to wait in line.

The line wasn't really moving. Target team members were walking down the line periodically announcing what they were out of, or the limited stock of what they did have. I started to think about if I was going to get whatever they have left, or walk if all they have is a 64GB. One time he said they "have plenty of mini's," and that's what I was looking for. It's at the price point I like, and it does everything the full sized version does.

So the line creeped forward ever so slowly, and finally I could see the cage. I saw what was taking so long. Almost everyone who got to the cage was asking what each version does, or what does 16 vs. 32 GB mean, etc. I think some of these people didn't care about the iPad so much as they wanted to say that they stood in line for something and got it.

I got to the cage and asked for a black 16 gig mini. He pulled one out and handed it to me. Finally, at long last, I have a tablet. Well, actually, Megan is giving it to me for Christmas, so come 12/25 I have a tablet.

She gave me my Kindle for Christmas last year, and it has been the best Christmas gift I've ever gotten (replacing the Pink Floyd box set of all of their albums that I got when I was in High School as best gift). Will an iPad top it? Time will tell. Leave comments with any cool things that I can do with an iPad.

Family Guy kills off major character (SPOILERS)

Megan and I love Family Guy. It's one of the only shows we watch when it's on. We have countless hours of TV on DVR that we'll probably never get to, but when Family Guy is new, we have Ozzie in bed by 8:00 so we can view the new episode. Probably because we know all of the old episodes so well. Megan falls asleep with Family Guy on Adult Swim every night. She even brought the Family Guy we have on DVD to the hospital when Ozzie was born in case they didn't have the Cartoon Network (they did).

I've recently thought how the show is getting a little repetitive. Still hilarious, but with its cut-aways, giant chicken fights, and Herbert the pedophile with the same schtick week-in-week-out, it could use a kick in the pants. The kind of kick it delivered last night when Brian the dog was hit and killed by a car.

I think Brian is the best major character to get rid of. He has had many episodes centered around him, and while his dry, sarcastic one liners have made me laugh, Quagmire says it best about Brian to his face in this classic restaurant scene:

I'm bored of Brian's songs, and agendas. His departure is exactly what the show needs to sustain another 200 episodes. The Griffins got a new dog last night, Vinnie, voiced by The Soprano's Paulie Walnuts, Tony Sirico. I'm excited to get to know him, and see the trouble he and Stewie get into together.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Megan was gone all day and night yesterday at the Gopher football game, and then dinner (her cousin is a starter on the team), so I was in full (nerd) dad mode all day and night. I loved playing with Ozzie for the whole day, but my payback was that I got to go to a movie today. That movie was the second installment of The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire.

The Hunger Games. I didn't know anything about the books until the first movie came out last year. And then all I knew was that it was popular with the tweens. Then I was in Wal-Mart around the time flick one came out and saw the book on the shelf and picked not up, flipped to the middle and read a page. It was awesome action written in the present tense. I couldn't wait to read the whole book.

I took it home and couldn't read it fast enough. I'm Nerd Dad, but I'm not into fantasy-type books. I can't do The Lord of the Rings, but The Hunger Games gripped me. Megan and I love to watch Big Brother every summer, and the Hunger Games reminded me of that kind of reality TV. Big Brother isn't as, literally, cut-throat, but you see what I mean.

I burned through all of the books at break neck speed. As soon as I was done with the first book, the film was still in theaters and I went right away. I would have hated the movie if I hadn't read the book. The reason for The Hunger Games is explained by a title card at the beginning of the film. I would have dismissed it, if I ever even saw the movie. But since I had just finished the book, I liked the movie. I didn't love it, but I liked it fine. The film-nerd in me had issues with the direction, and hand-held camera work of the first film. Catching Fire has a new director.

I knew the movie is two and a half hours, so I limited my beverages all morning. I hate having to pee during a movie in the theater, even with RunPee. I went to the 2:30 show. The movie just came out on Friday, and was actually showing at 8:00 Thursday night, so I figured the buzz would have died down by Sunday afternoon. The 2:30 show was sold out, but they had about 6 tickets left for the 3:30, so I bought my seat. The guy brought up a screen on the computer with all of the seats in the theater and had me pick where I wanted to sit. I picked the only open seat in the 4th row, the leg room row.

I drove to nearby Northtown mall to kill time in Best Buy. I could play around with their display gadgets all day (I AM Nerd Dad), and went back to the theater to watch my movie. I thought about getting a soda, but they were $6, and would just add anxiety about having to go to the bathroom, so I chewed a stick of gum and entered my theater.

When I walked in, I saw the first three rows were all leather recliners. No movie seats, just comfortable recliners. People had their feet up, and I tried to remember if I could have selected one of those seats. Then I remembered that I'm in the leg room row anyways, so it's fine. I turned around, and EVERY seat in the theater is a recliner. That was pretty cool. I found the seat I selected, and the girl next to me had her feet up, and was covered with a blanket. I wished I was wearing my sweatpants. I assure you that I will dress more (less?) appropriately next time. It didn't occur to me until half-way through the movie to take off my shoes in the interest of comfort. If I saw someone do that in the middle of a film though, it would take me out of the movie for a minute with the thought, "there better be NO foot odor."

POSSIBLE SPOILERS (if you haven't read the book, DEFINITE spoilers):
Catching Fire is really good. Full disclosure: with the comfortable chair, I did doze off for a minute or two, but not because the movie was boring. I was fully reclined, and happy. It was when Peeta and Katniss were on their victor tour. I know that I didn't miss much, if anything, but I felt bad about it.

Maybe it was because I read the book that the lead up to the announcement of the Quarter Quell seemed a tad slow. But let me tell you that once the games begin, the movie goes by really fast. I knew how it ended, and I knew that the last scene was going to be the last scene, but I was thinking "maybe they'll have a little more. Don't end now!" That's pretty good after 140 minutes, but it cut to black. It ends on the cliffhanger setting up the third book, and film, Mockingjay. After I saw The Hunger Games film, I thought "sure, I'll see the rest of the movies too. I'm a fan." but I seriously can't wait for Mockingjay after seeing Catching Fire.

I like seeing a (super) successful  film franchise with a female lead. That's really rare in movies. I don't remember thinking it when I read the books, but the movies make Peeta a pantywaist. Catching Fire introduces a new set of tributes, my favorite being Beetee. I also like Woody Harrelson as the cranky-drunk Haymitch.

So the good reviews  it's getting are accurate. I recommend it, even if you haven't read the books.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Elton John Show

I got us tickets to this show for our 5th anniversary. Neither of us are super fans or anything, but Sir Elton John is a legend. I knew I'd regret it if I didn't go. And tickets (cheap seats) were only $40.

Megan's mom watched Ozzie so we could go out-just the two of us-for only the 3rd time in the almost 5 months that Ozzie's been here.

I have a 2012 Kia Soul, and they gave erroneous MPGs for them when I bought it, so anytime I want I can submit my mileage and get money from them. I do it once a year around now for Christmas presents, and used it to take us to Mancini's Char House up West 7th from the Xcel.
We had a really good steak dinner courtesy of Kia, and Mancini's has a free bus that runs to and from the Xcel, so I was able to leave my car in their lot.

The bus dropped us off around 7:40 for the 8:00 show. We navigated our way up, up, up to our seats. Elton sat at his piano at 8:05 and played his heart out for two and a half hours. Take a look at the setlist (I know it's for the Erie, PA show, but it was the same for us).

At 66 years old, he still has it. He can't hit the falsetto anymore on Benny and The Jets, or Crocodile Rock, but he left it to us, the audience. It was great to see that he really loves to play music, and he's not just in it for the money in his later years. He took the classics that I've heard a million times and gave them a bluesey or jazzy twist. He didn't completely change them, but tweaked them just enough to freshen them up.  He had four black female backup singers with soul.

My favorite moment from the night was when he dedicated the next song to a guy in the front row. Elton knew his name, and said that he's fighting a battle (I saw in the paper today that he has hodgkin's lymphoma) and played Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me. After the song the guy crawled up on the stage and Elton gave him a hug. The song has a whole new meaning to me now.

It was nice to get out of the house and do grown up stuff for a bit.

Blog post one

Hi. I'm Andy. I am new to blogging. This is my very first blog entry. I named my blog Nerd Dad because I want to write about nerdy pop culture; reviews of shows, movies, books, etc. But I'm also a pretty new dad, and I'm sure that talk of my family life will creep into my writing as well.

Not nerdy like Star Trek and stuff, but I am a nerd/geek/dweeb art heart. I love gadgets and electronics, stuff like that.

My bachelor's degree is in screenwriting, and I know the mechanics of how to write a screenplay, but I haven't sold any work. My inspiration, and reason I wanted to make film, is Quentin Tarantino. I love his body of work. Django Unchained needs to grow on me a little after a second viewing. You gotta admit that Leonardo Dicaprio was miscast as Calvin Candy.

I love film production, and typically direct the short films my friends and I make.

My regular job is for an online retailer. I don't know if I can get in trouble for naming them, so just picture where you shop online as where I work.

I have a pretty wife, Megan:

And a cute son, Ozzie (5 months old on the 26th):

Megan and I got to get out of the house for the third time without Ozzie last night to see Elton John in concert. Writing a review of our night, and the concert, was what made me think to start a blog in the first place. Before I do that I am going to submit this blog and check out the formatting, and make sure it looks good overall.

Andy-Nerd Dad